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tyrw

387 karma · joined May 23, 2017

Cofounder at Userfront

tyler at userfront com

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tyrw··on Ask HN: Ethical VC Funds?
I worked with Capricorn [1] for several years, and these topics were always top of mind there.

They have the goal of making money first and foremost, but subject to the investments themselves being good for society, and serving LPs who do the same. E.g. they work closely with Skoll Foundation [2] and Skoll Global Threats Fund [3].

Another fund that we worked closely with was Omidyar Network [4]. They have more of a hybrid model of investing + philanthropy under one org. It meant they could do some projects that we couldn't at Capricorn, but also made it harder to measure concrete outcomes, which LPs tend to want.

1. https://capricornllc.com

2. https://skoll.org

3. https://skoll.org/jeff-skoll-group

4. https://omidyar.com

tyrw··on 'I grew up with it': readers on the enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel
I read the parent comment as "If I go to a 60 year old and present them a non-excel build, they will ask me why didn't I just use excel?"
tyrw··on Show HN: Someday, Open-Source Calendly Alternative for Gmail / Google App Script
Thank you! That's such a strange place to put it. Silly me, looking on the "Settings" > "View options" page instead of the button that says "Week".

Edit: doesn't look like there is the equivalent option on mobile, so unfortunately appointments still nukes my phone calendar usability, which is also a deal breaker.

tyrw··on Show HN: Someday, Open-Source Calendly Alternative for Gmail / Google App Script
We really wanted to use this, but having an appointment link creates a permanent vertical "event" in your own calendar that you can't get rid of. So adding multiple appointment links (e.g. one for 30mins and one for 60mins) completely destroys your own calendar view.
tyrw··on Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem
Clerk is great for new builds in the react ecosystem. We focus on more complex use cases where there are multiple user types (e.g. freemium, enterprise, partner, internal), multiple applications, or both. Having everything in one system removes a lot of tech debt and helps teams move faster.

And by "happy to chat" I meant by my email in my bio (which I just added to the public part), if it'd be helpful!

tyrw··on Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem
Depends on the app and the context. A lot of apps need multi-tenant access control but not necessarily separate containers etc. In those cases, "adding" multi-tenancy means maintaining an Organizations table, a Roles table, and a table to map them to Users.
tyrw··on Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem
Sorry I got busy today (more convos!). I'd be happy to chat or email and try to be helpful -- if you want you can check my bio.
tyrw··on Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem
We build a system that is multi-tenant capable but can run as single tenant until you need it. Happy to chat if helpful
tyrw··on Why Slight Failed: A Slight Post-Mortem
> Large companies didn’t want it enough to deal with our lack of “big company features” (enterprise SSO, compliance certifications...

> We spent a bunch of time on multi-tenant infrastructure...

I'm in a position where I talk to SaaS businesses all day about both of these. Probably over 1,000 at this point.

We help a lot of these companies add the enterprise features they need, but it's often a shame to hear they're just going to do standard login or build multi-tenancy themselves. Trying to sell to enterprises without meeting them where they are on login & compliance is asking for failure.

I think a lot of founders and early employees are true believers in their value prop, and in this case it blinds them to the fact that there are people in the world like enterprise CSOs who simply don't care and will shut down a product for any number of security reasons. You have to check the boxes, and figuring out what those boxes are on the fly is painful and costly.

tyrw··on Show HN: Konty – A Balsamiq-alternative lo-fi wireframe tool for modern apps
Balsamiq is already so cheap. We use it for our business and every time it renews I just think they could be getting 5-10x what they are. That in turn helps drive a better business and product.
tyrw··on Show HN: Route your prompts to the best LLM
It feels like there is an analogy here with Yahoo! and the early days of going from curated lists of websites to search algorithms. Do you think of LLMs in a similar way? I.e. some kind of model ranking score that companies could eventually game?

I'm not sure what the SEO equivalent would be here...

tyrw··on Show HN: Ellipsis – Automated PR reviews and bug fixes
We're required to have code review as part of our SOC2 process, and I assume automated agents wouldn't count.

The other end of the spectrum is linting and tests, which catch errors before review.

Does Ellipsis have a role between these two? If so, what is the role?

tyrw··on Show HN: I made a tool to easily compare pricing of developer tools and services
This looks like a nice project, though it's a tricky problem. For auth, MAU is only one axis and is applicable mostly for B2C with basic authentication needs.

Do you plan to add feature configuration as well (e.g. custom data residency, GDPR, SAML), or will you keep it pretty high level?

Also, are you open to a PR to add Userfront to the auth pricing?

tyrw··on I wanted to understand why racists hated me, so I befriended Klansmen
Directionally accurate, but in the example you've chosen it's more about economics than demographics, so they'd hug and then vote to separate anyway.
tyrw··on HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)
> You're just being disingenuous to be a dick.

Yowza. No I'm just discussing a topic you emphasized. Don't take a disagreement as a personal attack.

tyrw··on HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)
> One definition does not apply, but a different one does.

This is you choosing to ignore the first definition. And it's NBD.

I do understand how language works. You can choose to focus on one definition and ignore another, as is clear by this thread.

tyrw··on How Science Saved Me from Pretending to Love Wine
TL;DR author's dad was silly enough to think that people who don't like wine are intellectually inferior. Author learns about taste buds and finds closure.
tyrw··on HTTP is obsolete. It's time for the Distributed Web (2015)
You are of course choosing to ignore the first definition, which says "no longer in use"
tyrw··on This New MIT Master's Program Doesn't Require a College or High School Degree
> Everyone accepted to the program are f100 employees with existing MIT/Mass ties

What is your data source for this?

tyrw··on More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why
Why should this be the case? They offer a service with hundreds of competing options (other schools), so it's hard to argue they're not offering market rate.
tyrw··on More Americans Are Falling Behind on Student Loans, and Nobody Quite Knows Why
Honest question: why is 1/5 that much more of a problem than 18.8%?
tyrw··on Privacy
I generally agree with your statement, but Apple goes a step further to say they believe it is a human right. That feels a little forced from a massive corporation.
tyrw··on Where Can You Fly? Worldwide Drone Laws Mapped
I love technology but I'm an absolute luddite when it comes to drones. Something about flying a 5 pound weight a few hundred feet over others' heads really bothers me. I'd love to have this app so I can show people whenever they're not allowed to fly near me.
tyrw··on Causes of death over 100 years
It's incredible to think how removing the "bottlenecks" drastically increased average lifespan around the turn of the century. Makes you wonder if there are a couple of things we could do around aging processes that would extend the average lifespan another 30+ years.
tyrw··on Sessions Defends Campus Free Speech and Trump's Criticism of NFL Player Protests
I wouldn't consider the NFL protests a fail, given that we literally have a commentator on FOX news taking prime time to accurately describe to the audience "this is why they're protesting".
tyrw··on [dead]
It's a crazy indication of Uber's culture that a rational, levelheaded sentiment like this is worthy of mention.

In many ways, reflects the larger world we live in though...

tyrw··on What I would do if I was 18 now
I don't think there's much mileage is blanket statements of what "makes people happy". I've traveled and thoroughly enjoyed it and it made me happy, and I know people who I think honestly derive happiness from staying with the latest fashions, etc. To each their own.
tyrw··on What I would do if I was 18 now
I've always wanted to write a "how to get rich" book in which I simply describe how to write a "how to get rich" book. If done right it might actually work, and if it did you really couldn't argue with the method.
tyrw··on So You Want to Start Your Own Business? Things People Don't Tell You
Having started a couple myself, I'd say a few of these are industry-specific.

The main thing I learned (and learned to accept) is that at the beginning, nobody cares. Potential customers don't care until you very clearly articulate something that matters to them. Friends and family care about YOU, but unless they're the target user, they also don't care about the business itself. Particularly for high achievers who are used to positive feedback, this lack of engagement can be pretty difficult. It would almost be easier if you had someone out there loudly rooting against you; at least then you'd exist to the world.

Anyway, once I accepted that as a natural part of the process, the ups and downs got a lot easier.

tyrw··on Ask HN: What is everyone currently working on?
I'm working on a tool you can add to any website that makes the content editable for non-developers. https://component.io

So now you don't have to do the back and forth "hey can you make a few quick edits" routine, and you can use whatever technology you want to build the site.

We've been working on it a little under a year and have a couple thousand users.

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